jillian michaels, danny cahill, and the coles family. "unstapled" premieres january 14th. looking forward to that. richard heene, the man having a lot of people believing his son was in a runaway balloon is here tomorrow night with a balloon with him. don't miss tomorrow night. don't miss right now, anderson cooper and "a.c. 360." tonight president obama says we failed. he says he's responsible. the buck stops with him. what he's doing to fix a system that allowed a terrorist with an underwear bomb on to a u.s.-bound flight on christmas. are the changes he's talking about for real or designed to make us feel safer? our first look at the incredible airport security breach that crippled newark airport. tsa cameras were not recording and missed it. we have another view. surveillance tape from an airline and what it shows could have deadly implications. the breaks news tonight. major news in late night tv and network primetime programming. nbc's jay leno at 10:00 p.m.

apparently finished. conan o'brien at 11:35 done. big money gamble and big tv disaster. details ahead. president obama explaining how the system designed to keep us safe instead allowed a bomber on board a u.s. airliner. though that same system had all the information needed to stop that guy. tonight his take on what went wrong and what to do about. umar farouk abdulmutallab in court tomorrow charged with the attempted destruction of northwest flight 253 in the attempted murder of nearly 300 people. the intended murder weapon, two kinds of explosives as you've seen by now. sewn into a pair of underpants, walked through airport security in amsterdam. today president obama touched briefly on the screening system but saved most criticism for this. you're looking up there on the wall at the 16 agencies making up the u.s. intelligence community with the director of national intelligence overseeing it all and the national counterterrorism center supposed to be coordinating the intelligence.

you can imagine how confusing the tangle of agencies is and how tough it must be to coordinate them. the president said they had all the information they needed to stop this plot but never put it together. he laid out steps to fix the problem. he said he took responsibility for their failures and promised to hold them accountable, explaining why he's not singling anyone out for discipline and warning against overreacting which he says would be a victory for al qaeda. >> here at home we will strengthen our defenses but we will not succumb to a siege mentality that sacrifices the open society and liberties and values that we cherish as americans. because great and proud nations don't hunker down and hide behind walls of suspicion and mistrust. that's is what our adversaries want. so long as i'm president we will never hand them that victory. we will define the character of our country, not some band of small men attempting to kill

men, women and children. >> joe johns joins us. did anything concrete come out of this today? >> the president laid out four steps, a system-wide fix, if you will, across several agencies. the first one is mind-boggling if you think about it. ordered the intelligence community to start identifying who's going to be accountable and responsible for following up on leads involving suspected terrorists. now, one would think that more than eight years after 9/11 that's already happening. it's a massive job considering how much information the intelligence community gets. mr. obama also ordered beefed up analysis of all the reams of information that come in which he would have to have in order to determine which threats are high priority and which are not. and the president also ordered faster and wider disemanation of intelligence reports involving potential threats to the u.s. pretty simple stuff. finally, he ordered an immediate effort to strengthen the criteria the government uses to add people to the so-called terrorist watch lists, especially the most important

one, the no-fly list, anderson. >> we've been talking a lot about accountability for this incident. the other night we put up the pictures of the people who touched this thing. we're going to show them again. did anyone step up and take a hit today? >> john brennan the president's deputy national security adviser said, quote, i told the president today i let him down, end quote. neither brennan nor anyone else lost their job. the president did talk about that. let's listen. >> i am less interested in passing out blame than i am in learning from and correcting these mistakes to make us safer. for ultimately the buck stops with me. as president i have a solemn responsibility to protect our nation and our people. and when the system fails it is my responsibility. >> it was interesting, though, joe, earlier in the day we were led to believe the administration was going to reveal shocking information about the case. i mean, a lot of us frankly were surprised there weren't real bombshells in what the president said. do we know the backstory on

this? >> i was a little curious. probably the biggest bombshell was abdulmutallab had a current u.s. visa but his name was misspelled in the security report which led the state department to think he didn't have a current u.s. visa. probably, you know, that was probably the biggest thing of all, anderson. >> all right. joe johns, appreciate it. fascinating case. we continue to follow it. we have a lot more tonight on the security situation in the united states. we're going to look at what happened at newark airport in a little bit. right now, let's talk strategy with senior political analyst david gergen, national security analyst and former bush homeland security adviser francis townsend. paula noonen, on the ground in yemen reporting from where this plot was hatched. the president took personal responsibility for the failure. said it is not a time for partisansh partisanship but citizenship. the gop is coming out against this. >> that lasted about five minutes, didn't it? the one thing he did do was something that a man on this

program a couple nights ago said he had to do, take personal responsibility for this, as john k. kennedy did after the bay of pigs and ronald reagan did after the marines blown up in the early 1980s. that w a step forward. to believe that this is going to end the partisanship over this issue i think doesn't reck nice current political realities. republicans believe deep in their bones this would not have happened had it not been for a certain complacency or people taking their eyes off the ball in terrorism. in the white house they've believe they have been serious about this. they have disrupted certain plots. they have nipped things in the bud, more disastrous than this plane going down, had that happened. they're not going to get much credit from it from their oppone opponents. their opponents believe they have been fairly relaxed about it, that they don't recognize the seriousness of it. that even now there's a question about whether they're really serious about going after al

qaeda in yemen and some of the other places, somalia, it's now starting to pop up. >> fran, you worked in homeland security under the bush administration. do you buy that? do you believe that's true? is there something -- are a lot of these things sort of political that changes from administration to administration or are a lot of the problems that existed now which are the president says he's trying to fix today, did they exist years ago and we didn't know about them? >> anderson, you know what, it's a little bit of both. i had been concerned as had secretary chertoff and others about a creeping sense of complacency. 8 1/2 years from 9/11 and keeping the bureaucracy motivated and focused and the american people understanding the government continues to need their support is hard. complacency is an issue and has been an issue sp. by the same token the administration made choices that are concerned across party lines, when and where and how to

deal with detainees at guantanamo or whether you try prisoners in military court. there have been changes concerning to some people and real debate about it. to your point, some of these changes, i share joe johns' assessment. it's baffling we would be talking about assigning responsibility for following up on leads. >> that was kind of stunning. >> it was certainly stunning to me. after all, we set up the national counterterrorism center. they used to carry-on a thing called the threat matrix. the terrorism threat matrix. they would go over two or three times a day for the very reason making sure leads were followed, who were assigned to do it and following them until they were closed. the national counterterrorism center, anderson, is and should be doing that today and if they're not i can see why the president would be very frustrated. >> paula, you're there on the ground in yemen. deputy national security adviser john brennan said they had fragments of information about plots against the u.s. which originated from the arabian peninsula but failed to, quote,

understand the intelligence we had ahead of the tack. how badly has the u.s. underestimated al qaeda in the arabian peninsula? >> reporter: they were blunt about saying abdulmutallab was a game changer. a breakout operative able to take the aspirational threat of trying to hit the united states to actually making it a real threat. that is what has changed everything on the ground here in yemen but also for the obama administration. to give the administration a little bit of credit, i've been tracking officials that have been coming to yemen now for months and months. it has been on the radar, anderson. the problem is no one, as we've been saying, connected the dots and said, look, operationally they now have more operatives, al qaeda operatives than there are in afghanistan. they have the capacity to do this. more than that, anderson, this is a place where they're recruiting teenagers every day to al qaeda and that just failed to show up on the radar. >> all right. we're going to have more with our panel in a moment. let us know what you think at

home about what the president said today. does it make you more confident? what the tsa cameras didn't show because they weren't recording. our first look at the security breach that shut down one of the busiest airline terminals in the country. it's where the 9/11 hijackers, where some of them left some. nbc's failed primetime experiment. see who may have pushed jay leno or at least pushed conan o'brien out of his "tonight show" at 11:30 and what's moving leno out of 10:00. i was just in town for a few days,

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we are at war. president obama said it plainly today in a speech that began with the mea culpa, seg wayed into a prescription for fixing the problem and wrapped up with this rallying cry. >> over the past two weeks we've been reminded, again, of the challenge we face in protecting our country. against a foe that is bent on our destruction. while passions and politics can often obscure the hard work before us, let's be clear about what this moment demands. we are at war. we're at war against al qaeda. a far-reaching network of violence and hatred that attacked us on 9/11, that killed nearly 3,000 innocent people and plotting to strike us again. we will do whatever it takes to defeat them. >> back to strategy session with david gergen, fran townsend, paula noonan. the white house basely says the incident, they had enough information about this guy, this nigerian as a likely operative for al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. what's being done or can be done

so the next abdulmutallab is caught? >> well, the president has laid out the issues, as joe johns mentioned, but this is really a question of having the analytic capable, not just at the strategic level. what we heard from john brennan after the president's speech was the strategic warning worked. we understood al qaeda in the arabian peninsula was a threat. we didn't have the tactical intelligence to tell us how and when and where they were going to launch an attack into the homeland. what they're looking at is the interesting thing is everybody talked in the lead-up to this day that that capability resides in the national counterterrorism center. while that's true, the president's after-action report done by john brennan says that there's capability also in the cia. the cia analysis also took a hit today. that was unexpected. >> david, do you think -- we touched on this a little bit earlier. i mean, do you think the reaction among republicans and

democrats, among american citizens, to this has been different than it would have been a few years ago? i mean, president obama very clearly said, look, this is the time for citizenship, not partisanship. it doesn't seem like there was a moment when there was citizenship on this in the reaction. it seemed like it's been an opportunity for sniping from people from all different sides of the aisle. >> i think that there's a certain kind of disbelief or maybe cynicism on the part of the public. after all, we've been hearing from the government they're going to close these gaps now for over eight years. we poured a lot of money into this. the newark incident suggests we have a lot of problems in the way bureaucracy responds to threats. we've been speculating for some days, anderson, this was about this guy and misses the intelligence on the guy. the real issue is we didn't pick up on the fact that al qaeda in yemen is a much more dangerous

force. to solve it is not a question of screening or better intelligence, it's a question of how do you stop al qaeda from recruiting and sending human missiles into america? >> also if you stop them in pakistan and, okay, they pop up in yemen, if you stop them in yemen, they can pop up in somalia. the fear is there's always going to be some sort of place for them because it's centered around this idea, which is, you know, so horrific. paula, i mean, again, you're on the ground in yemen. the u.s. is positioning itself as a partner with yemen in the war on terror against al qaeda. the yemeni government don't even have much control over their own country, right? >> reporter: absolutely not. some of the regions here, the government hasn't shown up as any kind of a force for years. american officials tell me in the last few weeks they've been impressed the government is thinking, look, this is a problem for us, too. they feel it could touch the leadership here. al qaeda is becoming more of a threat. add to that, sndson, interesting

to hear from john brennan today was the key link to core al qaeda. i can't tell you how many plots we've all pored over. the one thing investigators are looking for doesn't have a link to core al qaeda, not just internet chatter. for them to say that link is there. they will be sweeping throughout the world to see how many other offshoots of al qaeda have the key link to core al qaeda which will make them more lethal and effective in trying to hit the united states. >> paula, very briefly. probably a stupid question. we got e-mails on it. in the video you've taken, people walking around the streets in yemen. a lot of people carrying daggers. is that just a tradition? >> reporter: it is. it goes right back to the tribal roots. here it is loyalty to tribe that matters, and i and tell you people here from al qaeda being protected from those tribes. the yemeni government is going to have to deal with those tribes. it's not those daggers. those are ceremonial. they mean a lot to yemeni people

in terms of defense. every house behind me has a cache of weapons on them. there's a lot this government is dealing with on its plate. these people, culturally, the loyalty is to the tribe. many people saying, look, the government needs to deal with those tribes. >> paula newton, stay safe. david gergen, fran townsend. jay leno reportedly finished in primetime. conan reportedly caught in the squeeze. later, guess who's rewarding the white house party crashers? you are not going to believe who is paying the salahis, these two people, to show up at their party and how much they're going to get paid. it's going to make your, well, might make you annoyed. find out tonight. that's 8 hours while you wear it, plus an additional 8 hours of relief after you take it off! thermacare® delivers heat that penetrates deep, to relax, soothe and unlock tight muscles. after the heat gets really deep, my muscles do feel loose. even after i took thermacare® off,

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breaking news tonight. the multibillion dollar gamble that sent jay leno from late night to primetime and conan o buy yen from new york to los angeles is over. nbc looks to be folding its hand, reshuffling the deck and licking its wounds. four minutes since leno moved to 10:00 a.m., nbc reporting to move jay leno back and shove conan later. likely a front page tomorrow. we are joined by phone. bill, you've been working your sources all night. what is the latest you're

hearing about how solid the plan is and what's the plan? >> it's pretty solid. i think the only remaining issue is i guess the contractual problems that might come up with this rearrangement. the parties have been talked to and it looks like they've agreed this is going to happen. jay will move back to 11:30 but in a half hour version and conan will slide back half an hour and continue to do an hour-long show. his show will be called the "tonight show." not jay's show. >> jay leno from 11:30 to 12:00, roughly speaking and conan o'brien from 12:00 to 1:00. what happens to jimmy fallon? >> he moves back. he's going to start at 12:00. this isn't a reflection on fallon which the network is very high on. this is them attempting to solve two issues. the fact their primetime 10:00 show was not performing and hurting their late local news and the "tonight show" the 11:30

show started to lose badly to david letterman and cbs. >> wasn't the whole reason that -- i mean, they moved conan o'brien -- they gave conan o'brien jay leno's job though leno was doing great in the ratings because they felt years ago they had to make some sort of a deal with conan o'brien otherwise he would leave the network. >> that's correct. five years ago he possibly would have gone to abc. they didn't want that to happen because they believed firmly conan o'brien was the future of late night. they made an unusual deal creating a lame-duck situation with jay and i think they expected five years later maybe jay wouldn't be dominating at 11:30 but he still was. they faced the question of whether or not they should go through with it at the time. they decided to go through with it because they figured out another way to keep jay. all along part of the focus of

their strategy was don't let one of these guys go to another network the way letterman did and create a franchise that eats into our late night franchise. they made a series of decision to prevent that. >> this is a major shakeup in late night programming. there's a lot more on this. bill carter, you've been working on it for hours. we're going to have more on this later in the program. let's check on other stories we're following now. anderson, 52 below. that is what it felt like in some areas of the country today thanks to the windchill. heavy snow and dangerously low temperatures continuing to blast much of the midwest. snow and ice caused hundreds of cancellations at chicago's o'hare international airport. look at that bus. frigid weather is gripping the south, where at least seven deaths blamed on the severe winter weather. record low temperatures forecast for 2/3 of the country.

the deep freeze expected to continue through the weekend. missouri, gunman opened fire at a st. louis manufacturing plant killing three people and himself and wounding five others. the shooter was a plant employee part of a group that sued the company over retirement benefits. a trial began this week. the number of people claiming first time unemployment benefits barely rose last week and the four-week average of claims fell for the 18th straight week signaling layoffs may be easing. operation chi wau wau off to a smooth start. that's the real name. not a joke. 15 chihuahuas arriving at jfk's airport to begin new lives. trav traveled first class as they should on virgin america from san francisco. many of the tiny dogs had been abandoned in shelters there. in new york the demand is greater, supply, though, lower. they will help find the little guys loving homes. need another dog? >> i don't --

>> i done need one either. they're very sweet but one is enough. >> i hope they find homes soon. the newark airport security blunder. what tsa cameras failed to record but other cameras did. what shut down the airport. we'll show what you happened. our series "what's next" turns to the classroom. what does the future hold for today's students? kind of depends on who you ask. >> i'm going to be a lawyer, a doctor and a scientist and an inventor. and i'm going to make a hover craft vehicle when i grow up. >> i would totally buy a hover craft vehicle. he's got big dreams, so how do educators help his dreams become rally? i'll talk to washington, d.c., school chancellor michelle ree about her ground breaking work. if you've had a heart attack

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including aspirin, especially if you've had a stroke. if fever, unexplained weakness or confusion develops, tell your doctor promptly. these may be signs of ttp, a rare but potentially life-threatening condition reported sometimes less than 2 weeks after starting plavix. other rare but serious side effects may occur. hey, ask our doctor about garlique, okay? garlique's clinically proven ingredient maintains healthy cholesterol naturally. eat right. exercise. garlique. tonight, a 360 follow. sunday's huge security breach that shut down parts of newark airport for hours, left thousands of travelers stranded.

i-report video shows you the chaos after a guy slipped through a security checkpoint. tsa cameras were not recording at the time of the breach which is kind of unbelievable in and of itself. another tape exists from continental airlines surveillance footage. we have it for you. as you'll see with each frame it reveals how easy it was for this intruder to enter security. randi kaye has been studying the video. take us through what we know. >> this guy really created a lot of problems not just for himself and newark airport but all over the country. start here at terminal c. it happened about awe 30. >> this is basically where the gates are where the various -- >> this is where the passengers would come and exit. exactly. as a result of this thousands of people at newark airport had to be rescreened. flights were grounded all over the country and the airport, itself, was closed for about six hours. let me tell you here on the video what we're seeing.

this is the really important part. take a look at this video. there's the tsa guard. >> that's him right here? >> the guy in question is in the beige jacket. tough to see. >> the guy over here? >> in the beige jacket. he says to him, move back. the guy moves back and hangs around a little while while he watches the passengers exit. four minutes later the tsa guard, watch this. watch what happens. get rid of this one. this is four minutes later. the tsa guard just gets up -- >> this is him right here? >> leaves his post. >> right. >> this is new to us. we did not know this before. we knew he missed the security and missed the breach, but this is him actually leaving the post. we know he was gone for about 0 seconds. watch what happens when he's gone. here we go. the guy in question still unidentified and not found. >> this is the guy right here still? >> right. the guard's gone. see the desk is clear. he's making his way up here toward the desk. that's him. he was ten feet -- looks back to

see if anybody's watching. this woman in white seems to be a passenger coming from the other direction. he recognizes her and ducks under that barrier. greets her, seems to kiss her hello. eight seconds later, arm in arm, hand in hand, the two of them were gone. the guy was never seen again. >> it was a passenger who saw this guy duck under and reported the breach. >> the tsa guard was not there. once it was reported the tsa went to their security cameras in this area in terminal c. the arcamera were not recording. they had to go to continental airlines. their cameras were recording. tsa didn't tell the airport police and port authority for another hour and a half. this guy had plenty of time to leave the airport. we got it from new jersey senator frank lautenberg's office. >> what does the tsa say about this? >> they released a statement tonight. the surveillance video from

newark liberty airport clearly shows a tsa officer's actions led to the sunday incident. we will use this hard lesson to reenforce the sharp focus and tight discipline at all our stations across the country and ensure we maintain the public trust. >> thanks very much. appreciate it. a note about last night's program. in a report about the on going health care association negotia bernie sanders received $10 billion for community health senters in his state. i money is for community health centers across the country. i regret my error. leno's possible return to late night. what it means to conan, and nbc. payday for the white house party crashers. unbelievable. they are cashing in on their dubious celebrity, being paid to go to a party. i'll tell you who will dare pay these people. including the most space behind the third row. and traverse beats honda on highway gas mileage too.

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we want to get back to our breaking story involving nbc's two kings of comedy. jay leno and conan o'brien. "the new york times" says nbc is moving leno back to late night where he's going to host a show at 11:35 p.m. for a half hour, though. conan will be pushed back to 12:05 followed gi jimmy fallon. the executives have not made a final decision on the plan but if it's true it marks a stunning

reversal at 30 rock. last year in an amazing blitz gave leno his own 10:00 p.m. show. the ratings for leno and conan plummeting. the network pulled the plug on what some are calling a colossal mista mistake. nbc issued a statement today, saying, quote -- in a separate statement, nbc said we have the best comedy team in the business. we remain committed to keeping conan o'brien on nbc. he's a valued part of our late night lineup as he has been for more than 16 years and as one of the most respected entertainers on television. carefully-worded statements you notice for what many see as a costly failure. up close tonight, here's tom foreman. >> reporter: leno's september move was nothing short of seismic for network tv.

in an instant he was moved from his proven base of power 5 million viewers in late night to turn nbc's final hour of primetime every evening to talk. >> i am thrilled to have you as my very first guest. >> thank you. thank you. >> reporter: nbc thought it might reap a windfall. talk shows cheaper to produce than dramas. leno drew a larger stream of big names. big profits could follow. "l.a. times" critic mary mcnamara says. a huge debut, leno fell to last place. >> 18 million tuned into the first and i think he dropped to, what, i don't know, 7 million or something within a couple weeks. it was pretty staggering. >> reporter: other networks sme smelled blood as popular shows and new arrivals surpassed leno's ratings. local tv stations across the country were nervously suggesting leno was not leading enough viewers into their late

newscast. hurting their ratings and profits. >> every single network has one or two really solid shows emerge and there sits, you know, nbc with egg on its face. >> reporter: if that were not bad enough -- >> it's "the tonight show" with conan o'brien. >> reporter: -- leno's replacement, conan o'brien was supposed to lead the legendary "tonight show" into a new decade of glory. instead, he stumbled losing half of leno's former audience. >> i hit my head so far for 20 seconds i understood the plot of "lost." >> reporter: in a shakespeare yan twist, the entertainer winner has become a man who was passed over for the "tonight show" job years ago. david letterman on cbs. >> it's the "late show." >> reporter: letterman used to chase leno in the ratings.

he's pulling up to 2 million more viewers than conan on any given night. >> now, my response to that is, yes, i have. >> reporter: so for nbc, the expected win/win/win has become a lose/lose/lose. in the high-stakes world of television that usually means call the moving vans. tom foreman, cnn, washington. let's dig deeper. joining me, the media writer. "the new yorker" and author of "googled: the end of the world as we know it." jay leno said in 1993, the height of the frenzy over the future of the "tonight show," he said nbc stands for never believe your contract. it's amazing he finds himself and maybe conan o'brien finds himself in the same situation. were you surprised to hear this? >> stunned. >> stunned. >> for a network to have put as much effort and promise into moving leno to 10:00 and replacing him with conan o'brien

and then after half a season to potentially cancel it, which it appears they may do, which may also mean canceling conan o'brien, i mean, that's like shooting yourself in the mouth. >> how could nbc possibly spin that? i mean, will they just -- do you think admit this whole thing was a big mistake? >> i don't know how they don't admit that in effect. they won't say that. they'll say this is a great move and we're making money, which they've been saying. they said today that we have achieved our goals with jay leno. if you believe that, i have a bridge i'd like to sell you. >> they say essentially, well, look, the ratings for his show are what we expected and because it's a cheaper show to produce than extensive 10:00 hour-long dramas, you know, we're saving money. the flip side of that is it's decimating local stations' newscasts which come on after the leno show at 11:00 and they're losing a ton of money, right? >> they're not only losing a ton of money on the local stations,

which is the chief moneymaker is 11:00 news. the lead-in for conan o'brien's show at 11:30 is weaker because the news ratings are down for 11:00 news which explains why conan o'brien is 2 million viewers behind letterman now, when, in fact, leno was beating letterman. >> how do they get into a position, jay leno was doing well on the ratings when he was on the "tonight" show at 11:30. he was beating david letterman. why did they take him off the air and put conan o'brien? it was a deal they made with conan o'brien years ago? >> it was. they believed o'brien appealed to younger viewers. a hip guy with a querkky sense of humor. they thought that would broaden the show to a younger audience that's more internet savvy, et cetera. one of the interesting questions here, anderson, you have a new

owner coming in, comcast of nbc. they are interested in con tent repeated on many different platforms. one of the problems with the 10:00 leno show is not -- programs like "e.r." repeat very well. i think the new owners of nbc might not be happy about this. >> fascinating development as you said. stunning. appreciate you being on. thanks. >> my pleasure. ahead tonight, what's next in education? >> i think that maybe i would like to change is maybe have lunch a little quicker because we have to have it at, like, 12:00. >> i'd like to have lunch quicker, too. harry's right. second grader, harry would like to have an earlier lunch. we're going to talk about the challenges and changes and what's ahead for kids across america. what's not to teach your children. two young kids hold up a bank. wait until you hear how young one of the suspects may be when we continue.

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this life was saved... ♪ soothing sadness ♪ healing pain and this life was made easier... ♪ making smiles appear again because of this life. nursing. at johnson & johnson, we salute all those who choose the life... that makes a difference. ♪ you're a nurse ♪ you make a difference all this week we're looking at what's next in a series of interviews with innovators and trail blazers. tonight we turn to what's the most fundamental starting point. education. when we were brainstorming guests for this interview, michelle rhee came to mind, as chancellor for washington, d.c., troubled school systems she's been fearless when it comes to shaking up the status quo. i talked to her earlier. in terms of what's next in terms

of education, where do you see classrooms being 20 years from now? what's working now that you want to see more of? >> i think one of the things we're going to see over the next few years is a real focus on teacher quality and human capital in schools. one of the things that people talk about a lot is the fact that you can have great school buildings, you can have lots of technology and computers in the classroom, but all of that doesn't matter at the end of the day unless you have a great teacher in front of every single child in every single classroom in america. >> does that mean higher salaries for teachers? more accountability for teachers? that they can be fired in their not perform iing? >> it's both. i think, one, we have to get teachers to a level of compensation that puts them on par with doctors, lawyers, investment bankers and the most respected professions in the country. on the flip side of that, the only we that's going to happen is if we can hold teachers accountable in the same way we

do other professionals. that does mean if you're a truly effective teacher you're going to get paid more money and if you're ineffective be removed from the classroom. >> i want to play you something that a student, a 12th grader from new york, said when we asked her what she would change about her school. >> the teachers because a lot of kids complain about the teachers and, like, the older teachers are, like, they need to be replaced at a certain time and they don't realize that. they just keep them in because of the connections that they have. >> how much of a problem is that? whether it's connections or union. how much of a difficulty is it not being able to hire and fire people as you would in a corporation? there it is a significant problem that in this country right now we have a dynamic where you can be incredibly ineffective. you can actually, you know, take kids backwards in terms of their academic gains every year, year in and year out and still have a

job. and as long as we have those protections in place we're going to continue to have the problems in the public education system in this country that we do today. >> we asked another student, lauren alford, ninth grade student from atlanta, what she would change about school. >> i would definitely first say make sure all the students have, like, technology is becoming one of the things that's important to students now since i guess, like, we're moving forward in technology. make sure we have computers that are working. >> what do you see as the next revolution in education? like computers have been over the last 25 years? >> i don't think it's going to be something in the realm of technology, computers or smart boards or anything like that. those can be supports and resources in the classroom. i think the real innovation is going to happen around accountability for the adults in the system and, again, as i said earlier, with the focus on human capital. i think that that -- how we change the way that teachers are

thought about in society. how they're compensated. how they're evaluated. that is really what's going to drive the innovation going forward. >> what about year-round school? >> i think that we have to think about all of the resources that we have at our finger tips. when we're talking about improving the educational outcomes for kids. i absolutely think that we need to think about moving toward year-round school, but it is incredibly costly and it is something we would have to work out with the teachers union contracts. >> there are so many scary statistics out there. the u.s. ranked 25th out of 30 industrial countries in math. 24 out of 30 in science. it's terrifying and it feels like we've been talking about this for a long time. yet, we don't really hear creative solutions. doesn't seem like there's an answer. is there an answer? do we know what the answer is? >> it's the human capital. it's the quality of educators we have in the classroom and leading our schools. in order to implement the solutions that are necessary

it's going to take a lot of political capital on the parts of our politicians and leaders and it's going to make some people unhappy. i think that one of the things that we realized here in washington, d.c., with our reform efforts is you have to be willing to withstand a little bit of that opposition and pushback. as long as the leaders of school districts and cities are willing to take that on, that's really when we're going to be able to push through. >> this may seem an unusual yes for you. we've been asking it to all the innovators we talked to in our "what's next series." what are three things you can't live without? >> can't live without my e-mail, my computer, really good food, and on the professional side i could not live without the boss that backs me every single day, adrian fenty. >> i don't know if that was kissing up to your boss in the last one but i'll let you get away with it. >> not at all. he's the most supportive and stronger mayor on education that

you could possibly imagine. watch the entire interview with michelle rhee on ac360.com. our look into the future continues tomorrow. i'll talk to suzy orman about what's next for finances. if you want to ask her a question, go during the day to 360.com. submit your question on the blog. coming up next, young girls turned bank robbers. police on the hunt for two girls. age of one of them is a shocker. salahis are cashing in on their notoriety getting paid to attend a party. find out where and how much and who's going to pay these people. e

let's get caught up on other important stories. >> two securities contractors who worked for the company formally known as black water facing murder charges. linked to the killings of two afghans in kabul last spring. cincinnati, ohio, police now looking for two girls who robbed a bank. they believe one of them is as young as 12. these are snap shots of the surveillance video as the crime took place tuesday afternoon. attacks on health insurance plans, or so-called cadillac plans in play on capitol hill. according to white house aides president obama leaned heavily on house democratic leaders in yesterday's closed-door meeting saying they should include a tax on cadillac policies.

the house has resisted that idea which is opposed as well by many organize ed labor groups. prince william and harry said to be pleased with the oil portrait showing the two of them. the royal brothers as you can see in military uniform. notice the artist filled in some of william's already thinning hair. >> ouch. >> our astute writers thought that up. >> that's not a nice thing to bring up. >> someone else wanted to point out harry's nose which was broken in a rugby match when he was 15, they didn't change that at all. on display at the national portrait gallery for six months. thek it out yourself. see what you think. the couple who crashed the state dinner. anderson's favorite story of the day. they're being rewarded. wait, honey. one more picture. >> that's my favorite. honey, don't go.

>> salahis getting paid to party. >> i can't believe a hotel is going to pay them money. it's rewarding them for what they allegedly did. >> according to the "new york post" in terms of money, five grand in cash, in addition to plane tickets, accommodations and dinner. >> all right. >> it happens a lot at those nightclubs, you know. even for she who should not be named. >> beat 360. daily challenge for viewers, challenge to come up with a caption for a photo we put on the blog every day. ashton kutcher and singer taylor swift talk in the press room. eli, watch my punk of kanye for what he did to you. viewer winner, yama, with the caption, look at my new mtv show idea, called kanyed. it's about people being rudely interrupted at public functions. beat 360 t-shirt on the way. the shot. there's a lot of cynicism about government these days and it's

understandable, of course. a lot to be upset about. i wanted to take a moment to mark the retirement of a man. he's been commissioner of the new york city fire department. before that he ran the agency that takes care of kids in the foster system. public service career dates back more than 40 years. he's an attorney but routinely gave up the high salaries he could have earned in order to help the people of new york. many of whom probably don't know his name. they should. he's had a remarkable career. he's a remarkably decent man. retires from the fire department tonight. though he's going to no doubt continue to do interesting and important work elsewhere, as resident of this city, i wanted to say thank you. >> i will second that. >> we're going to be back with more news. the droid eris. the droid that's as connected as you. exclusively at verizon wireless.

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tonight president obama says we failed. he says he's responsible. the buck stops with him. what he's doing to fix a system that allowed a terrorist with an underwear bomb on to a u.s.-bound flight on christmas. are the changes he's talking about for real or designed to make us feel safer? our first look at the incredible airport security breach that crippled newark airport. tsa cameras were not recording and missed it. we have another view. surveillance tape from an airline and what it shows could have deadly implications. the breaking news tonight, major news in late night tv and network primetime programming. nbc's jay leno at 10:00 p.m. apparently finished. conan o'brien at 11:35 done. big money gamble and big tv

disaster. details ahead. first up tonight, president obama explaining how the system designed to keep us safe instead allowed a bomber on board a u.s. airliner. though that same system had all the information needed to stop that guy. tonight his take on what went wrong and what to do about it. umar farouk abdulmutallab in court tomorrow charged with the attempted destruction of northwest flight 253 in the attempted murder of nearly 300 people. the intended murder weapon, two kinds of explosives as you've seen by now. sewn into a pair of underpants, walked through airport security in amsterdam. today president obama touched briefly on the screening system but saved most criticism for this. you're looking up there on the wall at the 16 agencies making up the u.s. intelligence community with the director of national intelligence overseeing it all and the national counterterrorism center supposed to be coordinating the intelligence. you can imagine how confusing the tangle of agencies is and how tough it must be to coordinate them.

today the president said they had all the information they needed to stop this plot, but they never actually put it together. he laid out steps to fix the problem. he said he took responsibility for their failures and promised to hold them accountable, explaining why he's not singling anyone out for discipline and warning against overreacting which he says would be a victory for al qaeda. >> here at home we will strengthen our defenses but we will not succumb to a siege mentality that sacrifices the open society and liberties and values that we cherish as americans. because great and proud nations don't hunker down and hide behind walls of suspicion and mistrust. that's is what our adversaries want. so long as i'm president we will never hand them that victory. we will define the character of our country, not some band of small intent on killing innocent men, women and children. >> let's look at the steps the president laid out to fix what's broken. joe johns joins us.

joe, did anything concrete come out of this today? >> the president laid out four steps, a system-wide fix, if you will, across several agencies. the first one is mind-boggling if you think about it. ordered the intelligence community to start identifying who's going to be accountable and responsible for following up on leads involving suspected terrorists. now, one would think that more than eight years after 9/11 that's already happening. it's a massive job considering how much information the intelligence community gets. mr. obama also ordered beefed up analysis of all the reams of information that come in which he would have to have in order to determine which threats are high priority and which are not. and the president also ordered faster and wider dissemination of intelligence reports involving potential threats to the u.s. pretty simple stuff. finally, he ordered an immediate effort to strengthen the criteria the government uses to add people to the so-called terrorist watch lists, especially the most important one, the no-fly list, anderson. >> we've been talking a lot about accountability for this incident. the other night we put up the

pictures of the people who touched this thing. we're going to show them again. right now. did anyone step up and take a hit today? >> john brennan the president's deputy national security adviser said, quote, i told the president today i let him down, end quote. neither brennan nor anyone else lost their job. the president did talk about that. let's listen. >> i am less interested in passing out blame than i am in learning from and correcting these mistakes to make us safer. for ultimately the buck stops with me. as president i have a solemn responsibility to protect our nation and our people. and when the system fails it is my responsibility. >> it was interesting, though, joe, earlier in the day we were led to believe the administration was going to reveal shocking information about the case. i mean, a lot of us frankly were surprised there weren't real bombshells in what the president said. do we know the backstory on this? >> it was a little curious. probably the biggest bombshell was abdulmutallab had a current

u.s. visa but his name was misspelled in the security report which led the state department to think he didn't have a current u.s. visa. probably, you know, that was probably the biggest thing of all, anderson. >> all right. joe johns, appreciate it. fascinating case. we continue to follow it. we have a lot more tonight on the security situation in the united states. we're going to look at what happened at newark airport in a little bit. right now, let's talk strategy with senior political analyst david gergen, national security analyst and former bush homeland security adviser francis townsend. paula newton, on the ground in yemen reporting from where this plot was apparently hatched. the president took personal responsibility for the failure. said it is not a time for partisanship, but it's a time for citizenship. the gop is coming out against this. >> that lasted about five minutes, didn't it? the one thing he did do was something that a man on this program a couple nights ago said he had to do, take personal

responsible for this. just as john f. kennedy did after the bay after pigs and ronald reagan did when the marines were blown up in the 1980s. that was a step forward. to believe that this is going to end the partisanship over this issue i think doesn't reck nice current political realities. republicans believe deep in their bones this would not have happened had it not been for a certain complacency or people taking their eyes off the ball in terrorism. in the white house they believe they have been serious about this. they have disrupted certain plots. they have nipped things in the bud, more disastrous than this plane going down, had that happened. they're not going to get much credit for it from their opponents. their opponents believe they have been fairly relaxed about it, that they don't recognize the seriousness of it. that even now there's a question about whether they're really serious about going after al qaeda in yemen and some of the other places, somalia, it's now starting to pop up.

>> fran, you worked in homeland security under the bush administration. do you buy that? do you believe that's true? is there something -- are a lot of these things sort of political that changes from administration to administration or are a lot of the problems that existed now which are the president says he's trying to fix today, did they exist years ago and we didn't know about them? >> anderson, you know what, it's a little bit of both. i had been concerned as had secretary chertoff and others about a creeping sense of complacency. 8 1/2 years from 9/11 and keeping the bureaucracy motivated and focused and the american people understanding that we continue to need their -- the government continues to need their support is hard. complacency is an issue and has been an issue. by the same token the administration has made changes that are concerning across party lines, whether it's when and where and how to deal with the detainees at guantanamo or whether or not you try individuals in criminal court or military commissions. there have been changes

concerning to some people and there's been real debate about it. on the other hand, sndson, to your point, some of these changes, i share joe johns' assessment. it's baffling we would be talking about assigning responsibility for following up on leads. >> that was kind of stunning. >> it was certainly stunning to me. after all, we set up the national counterterrorism center. they used to carry-on a thing called the threat matrix. the terrorism threat matrix. they would go over two or three times a day for the very reason making sure leads were followed, who was assigned to do it and following them until they were closed. my understanding is they have continued to do that. the national counterterrorism center, anderson, is and should be doing that today and if they're not i can see why the president would be very frustrated. >> paula, you're there on the ground in yemen. deputy national security adviser john brennan said they had fragments of information about plots against the u.s. which originated from the arabian peninsula but failed to, quote, understand the intelligence we had ahead of the attack.

how badly has the u.s. underestimated al qaeda in the arabian peninsula? >> reporter: they were blunt about saying abdulmutallab was a game changer. he was the breakout operative that was able to take that aspirational threat of trying to hit the united states to actually making it a real threat. that is what has changed everything on the ground here in yemen but also for the obama administration. to give the administration a little bit of credit, i've been tracking officials that have been coming to yemen now for months and months. it has been on the radar, anderson. the problem is no one, as we've been saying, connected the dots and said, look, operationally they now have more operatives, al qaeda operatives than there are in afghanistan. they have the capacity to do this. more than that, anderson, this is a place where they're recruiting teenagers every day to al qaeda and that just failed to show up on the radar. >> all right. we're going to have more with our panel in a moment. let us know what you think at home about what the president said today. does it make you more confident? join the live chat right now at ac360.com.

what the tsa cameras didn't show because they weren't recording. our first look at the security breach that shut down one of the busiest airline terminals in the country. it's where the 9/11 hijackers, where some of them left from. nbc's failed primetime experiment. it's our breaking news tonight. see who may have pushed jay leno or at least pushed conan o'brien out of his "tonight show" at 11:30 and what's moving leno out of 10:00. major news in the world of late night tv programming. hey, who's this? oh, that's kyle. he aced his fifth grade geography class. you see, now that we're using fedex to ship globally,

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we are at war. president obama said it plainly

today in a speech that began with the mea culpa, segued into a prescription for fixing the problem and wrapped up with this rallying cry. >> over the past two weeks we've been reminded, again, of the challenge we face in protecting our country. against a foe that is bent on our destruction. while passions and politics can often obscure the hard work before us, let's be clear about what this moment demands. we are at war. we're at war against al qaeda. a far-reaching network of violence and hatred that attacked us on 9/11, that killed nearly 3,000 innocent people and that is plotting to strike us again. we will do whatever it takes to defeat them. >> back to strategy session with david gergen, fran townsend, paula newton. the white house basically says the incident, they had enough information about this guy, this nigerian as a likely operative for al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. what's being done or can be done so the next abdulmutallab is caught? >> well, the president has laid

out the issues, as joe johns mentioned, but this is really a question of having the analytic capability, not just at the strategic level. what we heard from john brennan after the president's speech was the strategic warning worked. we understood al qaeda in the arabian peninsula was a threat. we didn't understand -- we didn't have the tactical analysis to tell us how and when and where they were going to actually launch an attack into the homeland. what they're looking at is the interesting thing is everybody talked in the lead-up to this day that that capability resides in the national counterterrorism center. while that's true, the president's after-action report done by john brennan says that there's capability also in the cia. the cia analysis also took a hit today. that was unexpected. >> david, do you think -- we touched on this a little bit earlier. i mean, do you think the reaction among republicans and democrats, among american citizens, to this has been different than it would have been a few years ago?

i mean, president obama very clearly said, look, this is the time for citizenship, not partisanship. it doesn't seem like there was a moment when there was citizenship on this in the reaction. it seemed like it's been an opportunity for sniping from people from all different sides of the aisle. >> i think that there's a certain kind of disbelief or maybe cynicism on the part of the public. after all, we've been hearing from the government they're going to close these gaps now for over eight years. we poured a lot of money into this. we have the newark incident that would suggest we have all sorts of problems in the way bureaucracies respond to threats. i think what's the surprise today -- we've been speculating for some days, anderson, that this was all about this guy and missing the intelligence on the guy. the real issue is we didn't pick up on the fact that al qaeda in yemen is a much more dangerous force. to solve it is not a question of screening or better intelligence, it's a question of how do you stop al qaeda from recruiting and sending human

missiles into america? >> also if you stop them in pakistan and, okay, they pop up in yemen, if you stop them in yemen, they can pop up in somalia. the fear is there's always going to be some sort of place for them because it's centered around this idea, which is, you know, so horrific. paula, i mean, again, you're on the ground in yemen. the u.s. is positioning itself as a partner with yemen in the war on terror against al qaeda. the yemeni government don't even have much control over their own country, right? >> reporter: absolutely not. some of the regions here, the government hasn't shown up as any kind of a force for years. american officials tell me in the last few weeks they've been quite impressed that the government is thinking, look, this is a problem for us, too. they feel it could touch the leadership here. al qaeda is becoming more of a threat. add to that, anderson, interesting to hear from john brennan today was the key link to core al qaeda. i can't tell you how many plots we've all pored over. the one thing investigators are

always looking for, does it have a link to core al qaeda, not just some internet chatter? for them to say that link is there. they will be sweeping throughout the world to see how many other offshoots of al qaeda have the key link to core al qaeda which will make them so much more lethal and really effective in trying to hit the united states. >> paula, very briefly. probably a stupid question. we got e-mails on it. in the video you've taken, people walking around the streets in yemen. a lot of people carrying daggers. is that just a tradition? >> yes. >> reporter: it is. it goes right back to the tribal roots. here it is loyalty to tribe that matters, and i and tell you people here from al qaeda being protected by those tribes. the yemeni government is going to have to deal with those tribes. it's not those daggers. those are ceremonial. they mean a lot to yemeni people in terms of defense. every one of these houses behind me will have a cache of weapons on them.

there's a lot this government is dealing with on its plate. these people, culturally, the loyalty is to the tribe. many people saying, look, the government needs to deal with those tribes. >> paula newton, stay safe. david gergen, fran townsend. thank you very much. up next tonight, the breaking news. jay len moe reportedly finished in primetime. conan o'brien possibly caught in the squeeze. nbc with egg on its face and a lot less money in its bank account. later, guess who's rewarding the white house party crashers? you are not going to believe who is paying the salahis, these two people, to show up at their party and how much they're going to get paid. it's going to make your, well, might make you annoyed. find out tonight.

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garlique's clinically proven ingredient maintains healthy cholesterol naturally. eat right. exercise. garlique. breaking news tonight. the multibillion dollar gamble that sent jay leno from late night to primetime and conan o'brien from new york to los angeles is over. nbc looks to be folding its hand, reshuffling the deck and licking its wounds. four months since jay leno moved to 10:00 p.m. and o'brien you took over. nbc reporting to move jay leno back and shove conan later.

likely a front page tomorrow. we are joined by phone. bill, you've been working your sources all night. what is the latest you're hearing about how solid the plan is and what's the plan? >> it's pretty solid. i think the only remaining issue is i guess the contractual problems that might come up with this rearrangement. the parties have been talked to and it looks like they've agreed this is going to happen. jay will move back to 11:30 but in a half-hour version and that conan will slide back half an hour and he'll continue to do an hour-long show. interestingly his show will be called the "tonight show," not jay's show but jay will have the show at 11:3. >> jay leno from 11:30 to 12:00, roughly speaking and conan o'brien from 12:00 to 1:00. what happens to jimmy fallon? >> he moves back. he's going to start at 1:00. this isn't a reflection on fallon which the network is very high on. i think thifs them attempting to solve two issues which was the

fact they primetime 10:00 show was just not performing and was hurting their late local news. and the "tonight show" the 11:30 show started to lose badly to david letterman and cbs. jay consistently beat dave when he was at 11:30. i think this is an attempt for them to fix that problem, too. >> wasn't the whole reason that -- i mean, they moved conan o'brien -- they gave conan o'brien jay leno's job though leno was doing great in the ratings because they felt years ago they had to make some sort of a deal with conan o'brien otherwise he would leave the network. is that correct? >> that's correct. five years ago he would have probably gone to abc. he had offers from abc and fox. they didn't want that to happen because they believed firmly conan o'brien was the future of late night. they made an unusual deal creating a lame-duck situation with jay and i think they expected five years later maybe jay wouldn't be dominating at 11:30 but he still was. they faced the question of whether or not they should go through with it at the time. they decided to go through with

it because they figured out another way to keep jay. all along part of the -- i guess really the focus of their strategy was don't let one of these guys go to another network and create a franchise that eats into our late night franchise. they made a series of decisions to prevent that. they're back to where they were. >> this is a major shakeup in late night programming. there's a lot more on this. bill carter, you've been working on it for hours. i appreciate you taking the time to talk to us to get us up to the minute. we're going to have more on this later in the program. we're going to hear from media writer ken auletta. let's check on other stories we're following now. anderson, 52 below. that is what it felt like in some areas of the country today thanks to the windchill. heavy snow and dangerously low temperatures continuing to blast much of the midwest. snow and ice caused hundreds of cancellations at chicago's o'hare international airport. look at that bus. just wild. frigid weather is gripping the south, where at least seven deaths blamed on the severe winter weather.

record low temperatures forecast for 2/3 of the country. the deep freeze expected to continue through the weekend. in missouri a gunman opened fire at a st. louis manufacturing plant killing three people and himself and wounding five others. police say the shooter was a plant employee part of a group that sued the company over retirement benefits. a trial began this week. the number of people claiming first time unemployment benefits barely rose last week and the four-week average of claims fell for the 18th straight week signaling layoffs may be easing. operation chihuahua off to a smooth start. that's the real name. not a joke. aren't they sweet? 15 chihuahuas arriving at jfk's airport to begin new lives. traveled first class as they should on virgin america from san francisco. turns out many of the tiny dogs have been abandoned at shelters there. in new york, the demand for chihuahuas is greater.

supply, though, lower. they will help find the little guys loving homes. need another dog? >> i don't -- >> i done need one either. they're very sweet but one is enough. >> i hope they find homes soon. the newark airport security blunder. what tsa cameras failed to record but other cameras did. what shut down the airport. we'll show you exactly what happened. what it means for airport security in general. our series "what's next" turns to the classroom. what does the future hold for today's students? kind of depends on who you ask. >> i'm going to be a lawyer, a doctor and a scientist and an inventor. and i'm going to make a hover craft vehicle when i grow up. >> i would totally buy a hover craft vehicle. he's got big dreams, so how do educators help his dreams become reality? i'll talk to washington, d.c., school chancellor michelle rhee about her ground breaking work.

tonight, a "360 follow." sunday's huge security breach that shut down parts of newark airport for hours, left thousands of travelers stranded.

i-report video shows you the chaos after a guy slipped through a security checkpoint. that was supposed to be guarded. we've been telling you how tsa cameras were not recording at the time of the breach which is kind of unbelievable in and of itself. another tape exists from continental airlines surveillance footage. we have it for you. as you'll see with each frame it reveals how easy it was for this intruder to enter security. randi kaye has been studying the video. she joins us now. randi, take us through what we know, what we see happening. >> this guy really created a lot of problems not just for himself and newark airport but all over the country. it happened sunday night at newark airport. started here at terminal c at this checkpoint right there. it happened about 5:30. >> this is basically where the gates are where the various -- >> this is where the passengers would come and exit. exactly. exactly. as a result of this thousands of people at newark airport had to be rescreened. flights were grounded all over the country and the airport, itself, was closed for about six hours. let me tell you here on the video what we're seeing.

this is the really important part. take a look at this video. there's the tsa guard. okay? see he walks over -- >> that's him right here? >> the guy in question is in the beige jacket. tough to see. this is him one minute into the tape. >> the guy over here? >> in the beige jacket. he says to him, move back. the guy moves back and hangs around a little while while he watches the passengers exit. four minutes later the tsa guard, watch this. watch what happens. get rid of this one. this is four minutes later. look what's happening here. the tsa guard just gets up -- >> this is him right here? >> right. leaves his post. >> right. >> this is new to us. we did not know this before. we knew he missed the security and missed the breach, but this is him actually leaving the post. we know he was gone for about 90 seconds. watch what happens when he's gone. here we go. the guy in question still unidentified and not found. >> this is the guy right here still? >> right. the guard's gone. see the desk is clear. he's making his way up here toward the desk. that's him. he was ten feet -- looks back to

see if anybody's watching. this woman in white seems to be a passenger coming from the other direction. he recognizes her and ducks under that barrier. greets her, seems to kiss her hello. eight seconds later, arm in arm, hand in hand, the two of them were gone. the guy was never seen again. >> it was a passenger who saw this guy duck under and reported the breach, right? >> right. the tsa guard was not there. he missed it. once it was reported the tsa went to their security cameras in this area in terminal c. turns out those cameras were not recording. as you know. they had to go to continental airlines. their cameras were recording. they're based here at newark airport. tsa didn't tell the airport police and port authority for another hour and a half. this guy had plenty of time to leave the airport. tsa obviously did not release this tape to us. we got it from new jersey senator frank lautenberg's office who wanted us to know exactly what happened. now we know. >> what does the tsa say about this? >> they released a statement tonight. the surveillance video from

newark liberty airport clearly shows a tsa officer's actions led to the sunday incident. we will use this hard lesson to reenforce the sharp focus and tight discipline at all our stations across the country and ensure we maintain the public trust. >> thanks very much. appreciate it. a note about last night's program. in a report about the ongoing health care negotiations i said vermont senator bernie sanders received $10 billion for community health centers in his state. that's not true. i misspoke. i money is for community health centers across the country. i regret the error. the latest in our breaking news about jay leno's possible return to late night. what it means for leno, conan o'brien and nbc. we'll talk to ken aulett and take a close-up look. payday for the white house party crashers. unbelievable. they are cashing in on their dubious celebrity, being paid to go to a party. i'll tell you who will dare pay these people. and if there's any way to stop it. ice. announcer: today, guys with erectile dysfunction can be ready with another dosing option from cialis.

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we want to get back to our breaking story involving nbc's two kings of comedy. jay leno and conan o'brien. as we told you a few moments ago "the new york times" says nbc is moving leno back to late night where he's going to host a show at 11:35 p.m. for a half hour, though. conan will be pushed back to 12:05 followed by jimmy fallon. an hour later. the "times" adds nbc executives have not yet made a final decision on the plan, but if

it's a true it marks a stunning reversal at 30 rock. last year in an amazing blitz gave leno his own 10:00 p.m. show. calculated move. money-saving one. the ratings for leno and conan plummeting. the network pulled the plug on what some are calling a colossal mistake. nbc issued a statement today, saying, quote, jay leno is one of the most compelling entertainers in the world today. jay's show performed exactly as we have anticipated on the network. it has, however, presented issues for our affiliates. jay and our show are committed to working closely with them to find ways to improve the performance. in a separate business, nbc said we have the best comedy team in the business. we remain committed to keeping conan o'brien on nbc. he's a valued part of our late night lineup as he has been for more than 16 years and as one of the most respected entertainers on television. carefully-worded statements you notice for what many see as a costly failure. up close tonight, here's tom foreman. >> reporter: leno's september move was nothing short of seismic for network tv.

in an instant he was moved from his proven base of power 5 million viewers in late night to turn nbc's final hour of primetime every evening to talk. >> i am thrilled to have you as my very first guest. >> thank you. thank you very much. >> reporter: nbc thought it might reap a windfall. talk shows cheaper to produce than dramas. leno drew a steady stream of big names. big profits could follow. "l.a. times" critic mary mcnamara says after a huge debut leno nose dived to last place. >> what did he fall from? 18 million tuned in for the first and i think he dropped to, what, i think 7 million or something within a couple of weeks. it was pretty staggering. >> reporter: other networks smelled blood as popular shows and new arrivals surpassed leno's ratings. soon local tv stations across the country were nervously suggesting leno was not leading enough viewers into their late

newscast, hurting their ratings and profits. >> every single network has one or two really solid shows emerge and there sits, you know, nbc with egg on its face. >> reporter: if that were not bad enough -- >> it's the "tonight show" with conan o'brien. >> reporter: -- leno's replacement, conan o'brien was supposed to lead the legendary "tonight show" into a new decade of glory. instead, he stumbled losing half of leno's former audience. >> i hit my head so far that for 40 seconds i understood the plot of "lost." >> reporter: in a shakespearean twist, the entertainer winner has become a man who was passed over for the "tonight show" job years ago. david letterman on cbs. >> it's the "late show." with david -- >> reporter: letterman used to chase leno in the ratings. now despite a sex scandal he is

pulling up to 2 million more viewers than conan on any given night. >> now, my response to that is, yes, i have. >> reporter: so for nbc, the expected win/win/win has become a lose/lose/lose. in the high-stakes world of television that usually means call the moving vans. tom foreman, cnn, washington. let's dig deeper. joining me, ken auletta, media writer for "the new yorker" and author of "googled: the end of the world as we know it." jay leno said in 1993, the height of the frenzy over the future of the "tonight show," he said nbc stands for never believe your contract. it's amazing he finds himself and maybe conan o'brien finds himself in the same situation. were you surprised to hear this? >> stunned. >> stunned? >> for a network to have put as much effort and promise into moving leno to 10:00 and replacing him with conan o'brien

and then after half a season to potentially cancel it, which it appears they may do, which may also mean canceling conan o'brien, i mean, that's like shooting yourself in the mouth. >> how could nbc possibly spin that? i mean, will they just -- do you think admit this whole thing was a big mistake? >> i don't know how they don't admit that in effect. they won't say that. they'll say this is a great move and we're making money, which they've been saying. they said today that we have achieved our goals with jay leno. if you believe that, i have a bridge i'd like to sell you. >> they say essentially, well, look, the ratings for his show are what we expected and because it's a cheaper show to produce than extensive 10:00 hour-long dramas, you know, we're saving money. the flip side of that is it's decimating local stations' newscasts which come on after the leno show at 11:00 and they're losing a ton of money, right? >> they're not only losing a ton of money on the local stations,

which is the chief moneymaker is 11:00 news. the lead-in for conan o'brien's show at 11:30 is weaker because the news ratings are down for 11:00 news which explains why conan o'brien is 2 million viewers behind letterman now, when, in fact, leno was beating letterman. >> how do they get into a position, jay leno was doing really well in the ratings when he was on the "tonight show" at 11:30. he was beating david letterman. why did they take him off the air and put conan o'brien? it was a deal they made with conan o'brien years ago? right? >> it was. they thought conan o'brien appealed to a younger audience and was a hip guy and funny guy with a different sense of humor. a more quirky sense of humor. they thought that would broaden the show to a younger audience that's more internet savvy, et cetera. it hasn't worked out so far. you have to give time to these things.

apparently they're not going to give it time. one of the interesting questions here, anderson, you have a new owner coming in, comcast of nbc. one of the things comcast is interested in is content. content repeated on many different platforms. one of the problems with the 10:00 leno show, it's not repeatable. programs like "e.r." repeat very well. i think the new owners of nbc might not be happy about this. >> fascinating development as you said. stunning. ken auletta, appreciate you being on, thanks. >> my pleasure. ahead tonight, what's next in education? >> the thing i would maybe like to change is maybe have lunch a little quicker because we have to have it at, like, 12:00. >> i'd like to have lunch quicker, too. harry's right. second grader, harry would like to have an earlier lunch. we're going to talk about the challenges and changes and what's ahead for kids across america. what's not to teach your children. two young girls apparently hold up a bank. wait until you hear how young one of the suspects may be when we continue.

we're on the verge of historic reform, a major step forward for america. let's make sure the health care bill is as strong as possible.

under the house plan, we'll be offered good coverage at work. and we won't pay a tax on our health benefits. if you're self-employed or between jobs, you'll be able to afford insurance. and you can keep the benefits you have now. we're at the finish line, tell the president and congress, choose wisely, get it right for us.

all this week we're looking at what's next in a series of interviews with innovators and trail blazers. tonight we turn to what's the most fundamental starting point. for innovation. education. when we were brainstorming guests for this interview, michelle rhee came to mind, as chancellor for washington, d.c., troubled school systems she's been fearless when it comes to shaking up the status quo. i talked with her earlier. michelle, in terms of what's next in terms of education, where do you see classrooms

being 20 years from now? what's working now that you want to see more of? >> i think one of the things we're going to see over the next few years is a real focus on teacher quality and human capital in schools. one of the things that people talk about a lot is the fact that you can have great school buildings, you can have lots of technology and computers in the classroom, but all of that doesn't matter at the end of the day unless you have a great teacher in front of every single child in every single classroom in america. >> does that mean higher salaries for teachers? does that mean more accountability for teachers, that they can actually be fired if they're not performing? >> it's both. i think, one, we have to get teachers to a level of compensation that puts them on par with doctors, lawyers, investment bankers and the most respected professions in the country. on the flip side of that, the only we that that's going to happen is if we can hold teachers accountable in the same

way we do other professionals. that does mean if you're a truly effective teacher you're going to get paid more money and if you're ineffective be removed from the classroom. >> i want to play you something that a student, a 12th grader grader from new york said when we asked her what she would change about her school. >> the teachers, because a lot of kids complain about the teachers and like the older teachers are -- like they need to be replaced at a certain time. they don't realize that. they just keep them in because of the connections that they have. >> how much of a problem is that? whether it's connections or union? how much of a difficulty is it not being able to hire and fire people as you would in a corporation? >> it is a significant problem that in this country right now we have a dynamic where you can be incredibly ineffective, you can actually, you know, take kids backwards in terms of their academic gains every year year in and year out and still have a job. as long as we have those protections in place, we're going to continue to have the

problems in the public education system in this country that we do today. >> we asked another student, a ninth grade student from atlanta what she would change about school. here's what she had to say. >> i would say make sure all of the students have technology. it's becoming one of the things very important to students now, since, i guess, like we're moving forward in technology. so to make sure we have computers that are working. >> what's the next revolution in education? like computers have been over the course of the last 25 years? >> i actually don't think it's going to be something in the realm of technology, computers, or smart boards or anything like that. those can be supports and resources in the classroom, but the real innovation is going to happen around accountability for the adults in the system. again, as i said earlier, with the focus on human capital. i think that that -- how we change the way that teachers are thought about in society, how they're compensated, how they're

evaluated, that's what drives the innovation going forward. >> what about year-round school? >> i think we have to think about all of the resources that we have at our fingertips. when we're talking about improving the educational outcoming for kids, so i absolutely think we need to think about moving towards year-round school, butd it's incredibly costly and something we would have to work out with the teacher unions and contracts. >> there's so many scary statistics out there. the u.s. is ranked 25th in math, 24 out of 30 in science. it's terrifying and feels like we've been talking about this for a long time, and yet we don't hear creative solutions. it doesn't seem like there's an answer. is there an answer? >> it's the human capital. it's the quality of educators we have in the classroom and leading our schools. in order to complement the solutions that are necessary, it's going to take a lot of political capital on the parts

of our politicians and leaders, and it's going to make some people unhappy. i think that one of the things that we realized here in washington, d.c. with our reform efforts is that you have to be willing to withstand a little opposition and push back. as long as the leaders of school districts and cities are willing to take that on, that's really when we're going to be able to push through. >> this may seem an unusual question for you, bu we asked it to all our innovate fors we talked to. three things can't live without? >> my e-mail, my computer, really good food, and on the professional side i could not live without the boss that backs me every single day, adrian fenti. >> i don't know if that was kissing up. i'll let you get away with it. >> not at all. he's the most supportive and strongest player on education you can emergency. >> thank you. you can watch the entire

interview on ac360.com. tomorrow we talk with suze orman about what's next with your finances and the country's. tomorrow go during the day to 360.com and submit your question on the blog and we'll see if we have time to ask it. young girls turned bank robbers. they're hunting for two girls. the salahis are cashing in getting paid to attend a party. find out where and how much and who's going to pay these people coming up.

let's get caught up. two security contractors who worked for black water with facing murder charges. today's indictment is linked to the killings of two afghans in kabul last spring. near cincinnati, ohio police are looking for two girls that robbed a bank. they believe one of them is as young as 12. these are snapshots. you can see the surveillance video as that crime took place on tuesday afternoon. a at that beings on high-priced health insurance plans or cadillac plans very much in play it turns out on capitol hill. according to white house aides, president obama leaned heavily on house democratic leaders say they should include a tax on cadillac policies in the final version of the health care he bill. the senate favors the tax, but the house resists that idea which is opposed by labor

groups. william and harry are pleased with the first official oil portrait showing the two of them. the artist filled in some of william's already thinning hair. our astute writers noticed that. you have all your hair, mr. silver fox. >> that's not a nice thing to bring up. >> okay. someone else wanted to point out that harry's nose, they didn't change at all. that's on display for at least six months. go check it out yourselves and see what you think. the couple who cracked the white house state dinner. anderson's favorite story of the day, they're rewarded. >> they're being rewarded. >> here you go. wait one more picture. there you go. >> that's my favorite moment. honey, don't go. there's more pictures that can be taken. >> the salaries are pa-- salahi paying them. >> they're payinghe